The present invention relates to a subsea system for transferring hydrocarbons between a seabed system and a surface system.
These subsea systems comprise at least one flexible pipe which extends in a catenary between the seabed system and the surface system. However, when the water is deep, the flexible pipe then exerts considerable tensile stresses on the seabed system. In order to distributed these tensile stresses, the flexible pipe is attached by suspending an intermediate portion from a buoy which is held between the seabed and the surface, by an anchoring line anchored in the seabed.
However, the holding of this intermediate pipe portion tends to form an angular point and, in order to reduce this deformation which is prejudicial to the state of the pipe, the pipe is placed on a curvature limiter. This curvature limiter consists merely of a rounded support on which the pipe rests, and it is the curvature limiter that is integral with the buoy. Reference may be made, in particular, to document U.S. Pat. No. 5,505,560 which describes a curvature limiter of this type which in this case itself rests on the buoy.
A drawback of this device consists, in particular, in its overall size which increases the time required to implement the flexible pipe when it is deposited from a pipe-laying vessel at the surface. This is because the device cannot be lowered into the water through the shaft provided in the vessel for lowering the pipe. In addition, this type of device is relatively expensive to produce.
A problem that then arises and that the present invention seeks to solve is to propose a system that not only facilitates laying of the flexible pipe but that is also inexpensive.